H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

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H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

I supported H.R. 1 because it both addresses the urgent problems facing our local and national economies, and builds the foundation for real, sustainable growth. This bold recovery plan is designed to create and save jobs; help state and local governments with their budget shortfalls to prevent deep cuts in basic services like health, education, and law enforcement; cut taxes for working families and invest in the long-term health of our economy. With the enactment of this legislation – which passed the House on February 13th, 2009, and was signed into law by the President on February 17th – we have taken a vital first step towards putting our economy back on track.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will:

Create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years: Based on an analysis by the Council of Economic Advisers, the legislation will meet the goal of creating or saving at least 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Jobs created will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector.

Provide direct relief to working and middle class families: The package includes a Making Work Pay tax credit for 95% of workers and their families. In addition, the package provides direct relief for families by expanding unemployment insurance and offering payments to Social Security beneficiaries and veterans. These provisions make up nearly 40% of the package while the vast majority of the remainder is provided in state fiscal relief and investments that also benefit working families.

Prevent Teacher Layoffs, Make Key Education Improvements and Help Make College Affordable: The largest investment in education in our nation’s history, this package provides aid to states to prevent teacher layoffs, invests in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs, provides a new higher education tax cut, and increases college affordability for more than 7 million students by funding the shortfall in Pell Grants and increasing the maximum award level by $500.

Double renewable energy generating capacity over three years: It took 30 years to reach current levels of renewable energy production. This package will double that level over the next three years – enough to power 6 million American homes.

Create a Clean Energy Finance Authority and Renewable Tax Credits that together will leverage an additional $100 billion in private investment in the renewables sector: The finance authority will provide loan guarantees and other financial support to help ease credit constraints for renewable energy investors and catalyze new private sector investment.

Make a $150 billion investment in our nation’s infrastructure – the largest investment since the interstate highway system in the 1950s: It includes historic investments in public transit and high speed rail, an unprecedented effort to upgrade or nation’s electricity grid, and a new initiative to expand broadband coverage throughout the nation. The development of high-speed rail in Upstate New York is one of my top priorities because it will not only address our woeful lack of transportation options but also create good-paying jobs throughout the region.

Protect health care coverage for millions of Americans during this recession: The legislation provides a temporary increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage so that no state has to cut eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP because of budget shortfalls. This investment will protect roughly 20 million people whose eligibility might otherwise be at risk. It will also generate considerable state economic activity, jobs and wages. Additionally, it will modernize the health care system by catalyzing the adoption of health information technology by 2014, saving us billions of dollars, reducing medical errors and improving quality of care.

Enact the most significant expansion in tax cuts for low- and moderate-income households ever: Under current law, a family of four earning the minimum wage currently lives below the poverty line. Under the plan, that family will be lifted out of poverty by a combination of an $800 Making Work Pay tax credit and $1,200 from an expanded child tax credit. All told, more than 2 million people would be lifted out of poverty by this plan.

This legislation represents the most ambitious effort to stimulate the economy in our nation’s history. Accordingly, the President has made it clear that every taxpayer dollar spent on our economic recovery must be subject to unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability. He has identified five crucial objectives for Federal agencies to ensure that:

Recovery funds are awarded and distributed in a prompt, fair, and reasonable manner;
The recipients and uses of all recovery funds are transparent to the public, and that the public benefits of these funds are reported clearly, accurately, and in a timely manner;
Recovery funds are used for authorized purposes and every step is taken to prevent instances of fraud, waste, error, and abuse;
Projects funded under the recovery legislation avoid unnecessary delays and cost overruns; and,
Programs meet specific goals and targets, and contribute to improved performance on broad economic indicators.

I strongly encourage you to visit Recovery.gov, a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. This is your money, and you have a right to know how it is being spent. You can also download from my site a list of specific projects in the 28th District funded by ARRA, which will be updated as new stimulus money reaches the district.

The New York State Department of Transportation has a searchable database of all recovery programs in the state, and a helpful map to see where funds are being used to improve New York's transportation infrastructure.

For information on grants funded by the Recovery Act, you can check http://www.grants.gov/ and http://www.doleta.gov/grants/.

The University of Rochester has a helpful page summarizing its funding from the ARRA.

If you have questions about the new reporting requirements for funding recipients, please visit Recovery.gov